when, shooting off two pieces of ordnance, they sent their skiff aboard the Lyon, whereof was master Mr. William Peirse, which was some days arrived there before, though none of the present fleet that was now expected. According as the wind would bear they stood in towards the harbor; and by the assistance of some shallops that in the morning came aboard them, they passed through the narrow strait betwixt Baker's İsland and another little island,' and came to an anchor a little way within the said island. Mr. Peirse came presently aboard them, but returned to fetch Mr. Endicot, who came to them about two o'clock in the afternoon, bringing with him Mr. Skelton and Captain Levit. The Governor, with those of the Assistants aboard the said Admiral, with some other gentlemen and gentlewomen, returned with them that night to Naumkeag, by the English called Salem, as is noted before, where they supped, with a good venison pasty and good beer, (which probably was not their every day's commons ;) but most of them returned back to the ship that night, liking their supper better than the lodging which, at that time, could be provided on the sudden; or else, that they might leave the same free for the gentlewomen that went ashore with them, who, like Noah's dove, finding sure footing on the firm land, returned no more to their ark, floating on the unstable waves. In the mean time many of the rest of the people went ashore on the other side of the harbor, toward Cape Anne, where they were as well feasted, with strawberries, (with which, in those times, the woods were every where well furnished,) and it is like, as merry, as the gentlefolks at their venison pasty and strong beer; those fruits affording both meat and drink, and peradventure physic also, to some that were inclining to scorbutic distempers.

The next morning Masconomo with one of his men came aboard, being the sagamore, (which is, the lord proprietor) of that side of the country towards Cape Anne, to bid them welcome, staying with them all the day.

About two in the afternoon they descried the Jewel,

the

1 Little Island. Sav. Win. i 25.-H. 2 See Savage's Winthrop, i. 26.-H.

another ship belonging to the fleet; and manning out their skiff, they wafted them in as near the harbor as the wind and tide would suffer.

The next morning early, June 14, the Admiral weighed anchor, and because the channel was narrow, and the winds against them, they warped her in within the inner harbor, where they came to an anchor; and in the afternoon most of the passengers went ashore.

On the Thursday after, June 17, the chief of the gentlemen, with the Governor, travelled to the Massachusetts, to find out a place where to begin a Plantation; but returned on the Saturday, taking Nantasket in their way, where they met the Mary and John, a ship that sailed from the West Country, which brought Mr. Rossiter and Mr. Ludlow, two of the Assistants, with several other passengers; who, missing of Salem, needed the help of the Governor, and the rest of the Assistants with him, to make the harbor, where they were set ashore, a Salem, or place of peace to them and the master, which afterward they did; the difference that had fallen out betwixt the master and the other gentlemen, being on that occasion composed.1

July 1, the Mayflower and Whale arrived safe in the harbor of Charlestown; the passengers being all in health, but most of their cattle dead. If Jacob himself had been there, he could not have, with all his skill and care, prevented the over-driving of cattle, shut up in the narrow room of those wooden walls, where the fierceness of the wind and waves would often fling or throw them on heaps, to the mischiefing and destroying one another.

July 2, came in the Talbot, which had been sore visited with the small pox in her passage, and whereof fourteen died in the way. In one of them came Mr. Henry Winthrop, the Governor's second son, accidentally left behind at the Isle of Wight, or Hampton, whither he went to provide further supply of provisions for the gentlemen in the Admiral. A sprightly and hopeful young gentlemen he was, who, though he escaped the danger of the main sea, yet was unhappily drowned in a small creek, not long after he came ashore, even the

||5th ||

2

1 See Clap's Memoirs (Bost. 1844) page 40; and Savage's Winthrop, i. 28.-H. See Savage's Winthrop, i. 7-8-H.

very next day, July the 2d, after his landing, to the no small grief of his friends, and the rest of the company.

July 3, arrived the William and Francis,' and two days after the Trial and Charles; on the 6th day came in the Success.

The Ambrose was brought into the harbor at Salem, before the Governor and company returned from the Massachusetts. So as now, all the whole fleet being safely come to their port, they kept a public day of thanksgiving, July the 8th, through all the Plantations, to give thanks to Almighty God for all his goodness and wonderful works, which they had seen in their voyage.

On the 20th of August arrived another ship in Charlestown harbor, called the Gift; which ship, though she was twelve weeks at sea, yet lost but one passenger in her whole voyage.

There were no less than ten or eleven ships employed to transport the Governor and company, with the rest of the planters, at that time bound for New England; and some of them ships of good burthen, that carried over about two hundred passengers apiece; who all, by the good providence of God, arrived safe at their desired port before the 11th of July, 1630; and some of them about the middle of June. Yet many of them were, soon after their arrival, arrested with fatal distempers, which (they being never accustomed to such hardships as then they found) carried many of them off into the other world. It was a sad welcome to the poor planters, that, after a long and tedious voyage by sea, they wanted house-room, with other necessaries of entertainment, when they came first ashore, which occasioned so many of their friends to drop away before their eyes; none of them that were left knowing whose turn would be next. Yet were not the surviving discouraged from attending such services as their undertaking necessarily required of them.

Amongst others that were at that time visited with mortal sickness, the Lady Arbella, the wife of Mr. Isaac Johnson, was one, who possibly had not taken the counsel of our Savior, to sit down and consider what the cost would be before she began to build. For, coming from a paradise of plenty and pleasure, which she enjoy

And also the Hopewell, Sav. Win. i. 29.-H.

ed in the family of a noble Earldom, into a wilderness of wants, it proved too strong a temptation for her; so as the virtues of her mind were not able to stem the tide of those many adversities of her outward condition, which she, soon after her arrival, saw herself surrounded withal. For within a short time after she ended her days at Salem, where she first landed; and was soon after [as] solemnly interred as the condition of those times would bear, leaving her husband (a worthy gentleman of note for piety and wisdom) a sorrowful mourner, and so overwhelmed in a flood of tears and grief, that about a month after, viz. September 30, 1630, carried him after her into another world, to the extreme loss of the whole Plantation.

Of this number of ships that came this year for New England, and were filled with passengers of all occupations, skilled in all kind of faculties, needful for the planting of a new colony, some set forth from the west of England, but the greatest number came from about London, though South-Hampton was the rendezvous where they took ship; in the three biggest of which were brought the Patentees, and persons of greatest quality, together with Mr. John Winthrop, the Governor, that famous pattern of piety, wisdom, justice, and liberality, which advanced him so often to the place of government over the whole jurisdiction, by the annual choice of the people: and Mr. Thomas Dudley, a gentleman who, by reason of his experience, and travels abroad, as his other natural and acquired abilities qualified him in the next place, above others, for the chief place of rule and government; wherein, according to his just desert, he oft shared more than some others.

Besides the above named there came along with the same fleet several other gentlemen of note and quality, as Mr. Ludlow, Mr. William Pynchon, Mr. Simon Bradstreet, Mr. William Vassall, Mr. Sharp, and others: as likewise some eminent and noted ministers, as Mr. Wilson, (who had formerly been a minister of one of the parishes of Sudbury, in the County of Suffolk,) Mr. George Phillips, (who had been minister of Bocksted, in Essex,) with Mr. John Maverick, and Mr. Warham,

who had been ministers in the West Country. These were among the first adventurers that came over to New England to plant the wilderness and lay a foundation for others, in after time, to build upon.

CHAP. XXV.

The first planting the Massachusetts Bay with towns, after the arrival of the Governor and company that came along with him; and other occurrents that then fell out. 1630, 1631, 1632.

THE people that arrived at the Massachusetts in the fleet, Anno 1630, were not much unlike the family of Noah at their first issuing out of the ark, and had, as it were, a new world to people; being uncertain where to make their beginning. Salem was already planted, and supplied with as many inhabitants as at that time it was well able to receive. Therefore the Governor and most of the gentlemen that came along with him, having taken a view of the bottom of the Massachusetts Bay, and finding that there was accommodation enough for several towns, took the first opportunity of removing thither with their friends and followers; and at the first pitched down on the north side of Charles River, where they laid the foundation of the first township. But the chiefest part of the gentlemen made provision for another Plantation on the neck of land on the south side of the said river, (which was after, on the account of Mr. Cotton, called Boston,) by erecting such small cottages as might harbor them in the approaching winter, till they could build themselves more convenient dwellings another year. And accordingly, the Governor and Deputy Governor, with most of the Assistants, removed their families thither about November; and being settled there for the present they took further time for consideration, where to find a convenient place to make a fortified town, which then was their aim. Some scattering inhabitants had a few years before taken up their habitations on each side the said Charles River: some at a place called Mattapan, (since Dorchester,) situate on the south side of the Massachusetts Bay,